Nagisa Oshima - director, film actor, screenwriter from Japan. He won the main prize of the Cannes Film Festival in 1978. Erotic drama "Empire of feelings" Nagisa Oshima 1976 release - the most controversial work in the career of the director.
Biography
Nagisa was born on 03/31/1932 in the Japanese city of Kyoto. His father was an ordinary civil servant, engineer. Oshima's father died early, leaving the guy without a livelihood.
After graduating from high school, Nagisa entered Kyoto University with a degree in Political History. In his student years, the director Nagisa Oshima participated in the student movement in opposition to Japanese power. Because of this, having graduated from university in 1954, the guy was unable to get a job.
In a desperate attempt to somehow earn a living for Nagisa, an entrance test is being taken at the Shochiku film studio. He is recruited as an assistant director. This fateful event determined the whole future life of Oshima.
Carier start
Since 1956, Oshima has been actively conquering the film industry. Now he is not only an assistant director, but also a film critic and editor of the cinema magazine Eiga hihyo, which he founded together with Japanese critic Tadao Sato. The director makes his first film in 1959.
This is a picture of the Street of Love and Hope. The guy presented the opportunity to make his own film due to the fact that the film company suffered a financial crisis, and she was not able to pay for expensive films by famous directors.
Already in the first half of the 1960s, Nagisa became the founder and leader of the "new wave" of Japanese cinema. In his films, he often covered the topic of youth and criticized the society that had formed in Japan after World War II.
One of the films of this period, “The History of Cruel Youth”, was released in 1960.
The fourth film in the director’s career, “Night and Fog in Japan, ” was released in the same 1960. The picture, telling the audience about the Japanese opposition movement, was removed from the show three days after its release. Such an unfair decision forced Oshima to leave the studio where he worked and establish his own film company. The new film company was called Sozosha.
The first directorial work - the painting "Street of love and hope"
The film was released in 1959. The tape lasting only 62 minutes tells the story of a boy named Masao, who lives with his sick mother and younger sister. Family has a hard time. Masao is trying to find work to somehow help his mother, but she wants the boy to continue to receive education. The family receives money from the sale of pigeons, which, having lived a little with the buyers, return back to the boy. A girl from a wealthy family is trying to somehow help a poor family.
Actors: Hiroshi Fujikawa, Yuko Motizuki, Yuki Tominaga, Michio Ito, Kakuko Tino, Fumio Watanabe, Fujio Suga starred in the film.
Independent Film Studio Sozosha
At his own film studio, the director could make films about everything he wanted. The very first film he shot here, Cattle Content, sharply criticized racism and cruelty in society. The plot of the picture was based on the story of Kenzaburo Oe.
The theme of racism and cruelty of society was interesting to the director for the next decade.
Another bright work of the master on the same topic is the film “The Death Penalty by Hanging”. The film was released in 1968. The critical view of the director and the drama of the work attracted viewers from other countries this time. The film participated in the Cannes Film Festival program out of competition. This was the first step of Oshima to world fame.
In 1973, Oshima decided to close his studio and dissolve the workers.
Picture about racism "Cattle content"
The dramatic film "Cattle Content" was released in 1961. The plot is based on the story of a black pilot from America, whose plane was shot down by the Japanese. The action takes place in the summer of 1945. The pilot is injured. The Japanese authorities do not want to take care of the prisoner, and his fate is forced to decide the local peasants. It is not easy for peasants to live without it. Pilots are left to live in a stable. Despite the fact that his health improves over time, his life cannot be called pleasant. Locals make the newcomer black American a scapegoat and blame him for all his troubles.
Critics characterized the film as a tape full of abuse, hatred and despair. The roles in the film were performed by: Rentaro Mikuni, Toshiro Isido, Hugh Hurd, Yoshi Kato, Akiko Koyama, Taruko Kishi, Eko Mihara and other actors.
Work on television, literary work
In 1973, Oshima accepts the proposal to become a host of a television program about the difficulties that arise in the lives of women, about all kinds of family troubles with which they have to fight. The talk show "School of Wives" enjoyed considerable popularity among the audience. Closing his own film studio, Nagisa begins to write books.
Oshima Film Studio
Without cinema, Nagisa survived only two years. Already in 1975, he founded a new film studio, which was called Oshima. In 1976, Oshima's most famous film, Empire of Senses, was released. Nagisa Oshima, for whom the year 1976 was difficult but interesting, decided to provoke the viewer with his new creation. The painting “Empire of feelings” is a mixture of drama and frank pornography. The tape covers the theme of the relationship of sex and politics, which was of interest to Nagisa in previous years.
Since 1978, the director has been involved in several international projects. His films are released, such as Empire of Passion in 1978, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence in 1983, Max, My Love in 1986.
The picture "Max, my love" received very bad reviews in the press. The director always did not tolerate criticism, so after such a reaction to his film, he left the work in the cinema for many years and took up television projects.
Erotic drama "Empire of feelings"
A co-production film from France and Japan was released in 1976. The action takes place in the 1930s in the city of Tokyo. The owner of a wealthy mansion, Kitizo, has a passion for his maid Abe.
Kitizo is increasingly moving away from his wife and renting an apartment for his mistress. Residents of the city call the rich man and his maidservant perverts, passion draws lovers more and more. They begin to use strangulation to get more pleasure from sex. One day, Abe accidentally strangles his master too much, and he dies. Then the woman cuts off the genitals of her lover and leaves with them to roam around the city. The film is based on real events.
The roles in the film were performed by: Tatsuya Fuji, Aoi Nakajima, Eiko Matsuda, Akiko Koyama, Taiji Tonoyama and other actors.
Documentaries
Known as a documentary filmmaker Nagisa Oshima. This time, both critics and viewers liked his films. He shot only two works. This is “Kyoto, the motherland of my mother”, which appeared on television in 1991, and “One Hundred Years of Japanese Cinema, ” which was released in 1994.
Personal life
Nagisa Oshima's wife is Japanese actress Akiko Koyama.
Life totals
For forty years of his creative activity, the director made only 28 films. They not only show us how Nagisa saw the world, what feelings he experienced in his life, but also acquaint viewers with the evolution of Japanese cinema.
Actually, the history of Japanese cinema from Nagisa Oshima is fully reflected in the documentary film "100 Years of Japanese Cinema", released in 1994. In it, Oshima summarizes not only the entire Japanese cinema as a whole, but also her creative work.
Death
On the set in 1995, the director was struck by a stroke. Despite a serious illness, the director decides to make another film. Nagisa will complete the Taboo painting only in 1999, being in a wheelchair.
The director died in a hospital in Fujisawa from pneumonia on January 15, 2013 at the age of 80.
